HomeMy WebLinkAboutNewspaper Articles - OT General - 11/5/1992 ounty 11wwr or. Pb rinth
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Tahuya ors arm owner
By JUDY JORDAN broke through the dike at the Ney- he was checking dike repairs. was exempted from a shorelines
Words and recent activities of hart farm.Don Brush,county plan- According to Brush, it looked permit because property owners
the newly-organized group TRBO ner, has been working with Ney- like Neyhart has conformed with are allowed to make repairs on up
(Tahuya River Basin Organiza- hart all summer on engineered three-quarters of the written farm to 60percentof existingdikes with-
tion)have focused attention again repairs to the dike, but Brush is plan. Dike repair on five spots was out a permit.
on the Neyhart horse farm on the less than confident that the work carried out behind the dike and Brush says the horse farm is
Tahuya River. will solve all the problems. away from the river. One repair considered by the county to be a
The horse farm, owned and He and Belinda Fremont of the was done from the river side,a spot nonconforming development. In
managed by Doug Neyhart, who Mason County Conservation Dis- that had been eaten away. Brush other words,it means the shoreline
splits his time between Tahuya trict,were at the Neyhartfarm last says repair was done with pit run use was lawful at the time it was
and Seattle,was purchased by him week. He said Fremont was check- rock and soil. established,but doesn't conform to
in 1981 and has undergone scru- ing progress on the farm plan and HE ADDS THAT the repair present regulations.Normal main-
tiny a number of times based on the tenance and repair to nonconform-
farm's alleged negative impact on ing developments is allowed;how-
the waters of the Tahuya River. ever,expansion of the horse farm is
The 80-acre farm, 40 acres of prohibited and measurements
which are rented out according to must be taken to "mitigate envi-
Doug Neyhart,operates about two Neyhart topayronmental damage caued by the
miles from the mouth of the river, farm's operation."
which empties into Hood Canal. This means, says Brush, Ney-
The last major complaint period for water test hart must comply with the farm
was in 1987 and 1988 when Mason plan and must be in compliance
County planning offices received B JUDY JORDAN with future orders issued by the
complaints alleging rock being y county or other regulatory agen-
pushed into the river for dike Doug Neyhart owns a horse farm on the Tahuya River. He says cies.
repair and piles of horse manure he has about 45 animals on the 40-acre plus farm that borders the Brush says the county will
too near the river. Tahuya River and he says he doesn't understand why his operation watch closely to see how the dike
THOSE COMPLAINTS comes under attack so regularly. holds up over the winter. He says
prompted water testing at five
"We are a functioning farm here.I have four full-time employees that eventually a consensus about locations along the river,including and there is something going on here all the time,"he states. He the dike will have to be reached by
at the mouth of the river.Sampling himself is actively engaged in farm management about three days parties and agencies involved.
showed that the water still fit state of the week. Among those are the county, the
standards for Class AA waters,but Neyhart says he feels he is working with all the agencies he's Skokomish Indian Tribe and
Washington p
county officials expressed concern
supposed to work with and just recently he agreed not only to State Department of
with the operation. resume water testing in determined locations of the Tahuya River, Fisheries and, perhaps, an arm of
The horse farm was also to de- but he says he offered to pay for the first round of tests himself. the Washington State Department
velop a farm-management plan HE EVEN, he says, attended a TRBO (Tahuya River Basin of Ecology as well as Doug Nayhart
approved by the U.S. Department Organization)meetingbut,he adds,"It was clear I wasn't wanted." and his engineer.
of Agriculture's Soil Conservation He defends his operation, saying the dike on his property was IN A LETTER to Doug Ney-
Service. there when he bought the place in 1981.He says his situation on a hart, Brush outlines some options
Complaints leveled against the floodplain is no different than what goes on in the Skokomish River available to him concerning the
farm in 1992 are similar to earlier Valley, where dikes are used to protect farmland. dike. Those options include: leav-
com laints that is improper dike "I have 45 to 50 animals here,"he says. "Most are in training.
ing the dike in place as it stands;
repair, manure polluting the river There are about 15 horses that roam the 39 acres of pasture;the
p � p g leaving the dike in place and
water and noncompliance with the rest are stabled across the river." strengthening it; removing the
farm plan. He says he is following a farm management plan and has dike and replacing it farther from
Concern has also been focused Planted vegetation belts, most recently sowing winter rye. the river; and removing the dike.
by TRBO on the inappropriateness AS NEYHART explains his operation, he indicates that his Options three and four would re-
of havinga husbandry operation in farm is separated from the Tahuya River by a number of barriers quire appropriate shorelines
what is called a floodplain. which keep pollutants from reaching the river. He says there is a permits.
THE MASON COUNTY De- dike,a farm road,a ditch which drains to ponds and not to the river, Brush adds,"Mason County will
partment of Community Develop- and a farm fence that separates his pasture land from the river.
de-
ment is trying to work with the His only concern is keeping the dike intact so the river doesn't not consider the dike a viable y g velopment capable of being main-
propertyowner. Development flood the area.
p He points to the 24'x36' cement-walled building he just built to tained should it continue to fail
Director Gary Yando says, "It's this despite these current
hold barn shavings durings wnteresp
the wet months and says keeps his
important to recognize that this manure there until the summertime when he uses it as a fertilizer, repairs."
has been going on for a long time. I
Ney-
want to get him (Neyhart) to the ",lust like other farms do." Mason County and Doug Ney-
m i
point where he in compliance.He Neyhart says he doesn't object to showing his farm to people who hart have also agreed to resume a
has built the building for manure request a tour but he does object strongly when people just walk water-testing program. The first
storage that he has approval for." onto his property without authorization. test is imminent and Neyhart says
I Tact winter the Tahnva River
he offered to pay for it.
I
UND ■ THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1996
MASSON COUN,�
EnvironmenL4a�
wY rivers•i a ar
per
By Christopher Dunagan hart from maintaining a road along
Sun Staff the river to his horse-exercise',
L� May, N track, exce t for the use of a har
Vq�Notting, who raises prize yr Neyhart was row to lev l Oe dirt twice'a'year)
g trotting Ma es along the fined $5,OW by the He cannot use ditches or culverts
Tahuya River in Mason County, to redirect surface water.has agreed to move his manure- Stake Department O 'If and whi en the road becomes
storage barn away from the river Ecology, which ordered impassable b,y farm vehicles," the
and to allow the river to assume its agreement sty Les, "it shall be aban-natural course. 111ni to 1'@S'tOI'e natural doped.... Neyihart shall be`entitlec�The agreement resolves what Sltpr<ehtie5 else edgy to maintain ai reasonable alterna,
could have become adrawn-out five access to the track..."Ttie dis ,legal battle'over Neyhart's ability damaged by Illegal pub �avthe Neyhart ie di to operate Thya farm r a flood plain diking and the farm were built soriae 25 years ago,:can
near Tahuya River Road above
Bood Canal. operation. remain for nol,v,but Rutter expects
,Last May, Neyhart was fined they will be waished out eventually.
$5,000 by the state Department of The agreerrient allows Neyhart
Ecology, to maintain a '150-foot section of.
gy, which ordered,him The issue for him, he dike upstream of his farm build-
restore natural shorelines allegedly said, was the cost of moving his ings, using only `organic matting"'
damaged by illegal diking and the manure-storage barn, which was and planting Of willows and native
farm operation. located too close to the Tahuya vegetation t o'hold the dike in
.•`'Neyhart contested Ecology's River,'according to Ecology off,- place.
V-1- ings grid appealed the fine to vials. "Slowly bu t surely the river is
e state.S
h horelines Bearings Vern
oard. Two other groups Rutter of the Tahuya.River going to men(,1 itself,"said Rutter,'
— the Basin Organization said his group, who has accu;.;ed Neyhart of build-
uya River Basin Organization as well as the state and tribe'made in new . <
� d,the Skokomish Indian Tribe- a major`concess on b aIlowin g dr rocks.
from dredged river;
oared the legal battle y g gravel and rocks.
g against Ncy- Neyhart Farm to remain in the Rutter sa yid Mason County
Tahuya River's flood plain But he shoreline officials, who_should
� ; On-Tuesday,the slate Aitonrey. is optimistic the;agreement will have taken a'lead in enforcement,fie' neral's Office filed an agree nient help restore the natural environ esseptiany igri(fired the problems:,,signed last week by all four parties. menL "It is a sad commentary," he
j, he agwer ent addresses a variety .njc river is going to change its said, "that a citizens group had`to of enviromnental'concerns, sus- course," said Rutter. "In the last ' do the job of the county."
ponds the fine an s the legal
d end rainfall, it,broke through(the(like) Gary Yand�, county shorelines
�dispute —.provided that Neyhart in a couple of places." administrator, said he was'"work-.
hves up to lus end of the bargain. If the river moves the agree- ing with" Neyhart when Ecology
,"':,,",Let's-hope that everybody is rnent requires that,horses be kept officials tel)ped in with their
T, ppy after this," Neyhart said. at least 50 feat away from the enforcement a uthority.
e went along way to'get this channel,Rutter noted. "We simpl�li� elected not to par_;
` Y ttled." The agreement prevents Ney ticipate, he arfded